I can't wait to hear the questions of this lugubrious goober, conman Michael Kahn. His contract was let under pressure. It's another example of waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, flummery, dupery and nincompoopery. Two City staff attorneys can't write an ordinance? Pitiful.
Here's the HCN editorial.
City hears from Constitutional Law expert (sic) Michael Kahn
February 24, 2018
Historic City News
Ordinance no. 2018-06
An ordinance of the City of St. Augustine, Florida, repealing and replacing section 18-8 of the code of the City of St. Augustine; providing for findings and intent; providing for definitions; providing for prohibited conduct, proximity and location restrictions for solicitation, panhandling or begging; providing for penalties; providing for inclusion in the code of the City of St. Augustine; providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances; providing for severance of invalid provisions; and providing for an effective date.
Sixteen pages of beautiful legalese, lawyer spew and gobbledygook will be visited upon the St Augustine City Commission Monday evening; thanks to the employment of one worthless attorney, recommended by another one.
Although $25,000 poorer for the exercise, city taxpayers will hear the proposed “new” panhandling ordinance, needed because our “old” panhandling ordinance was defective — according to City Attorney Isabelle Lopez’ interpretation of a District Court of Appeals decision in Tampa last year. After learning of the decision, without fanfare, Lopez directed that the city police stop enforcing our laws against panhandlers downtown.
Quickly the merchants and residents, particularly those near the Colonial Quarter, found themselves inundated with hobos, grifters, vagrants, and freeloaders attracted by the warm climate as well as the climate at city hall. Frustration with the lack of support for citizens and what appeared to be preferential treatment of beggars, bums and thieves, soon escalated to a crisis when those suffering the consequences decided to stand their ground.
Taking a page from the Neighborhood Watch Program, about 1,000 individuals signed up to join a Vagrant Watch Group who communicated with each other on Facebook. The leaders hit the ground running and before many in town knew what had happened, the group was able to articulate a plan, present it to personnel at city hall, members of the city commission, and the police department. Their function was to observe and report. Participants uploaded their photographs of abuse of public property, violations of petty theft, open containers, overnight camping, public urination and defecation, trespassing, disturbing the peace, and aggressive panhandling activities. Laws prohibiting those actions were outside the scope of the DCA ruling on which Lopez based her “legal opinion”. Citizens volunteering without city direction or resources began documenting the time, place, violation, and, if an arrest was made, they might even capture the booking information collected and published by the county jail. Volumes of evidence was collected, documented, and provided to police in support of the citizen initiative.
A review of the jail log showed that city arrests climbed to as many as four-or-five daily, sometimes more. Not all arrests were for misdemeanor crimes, either. Some arrests involved burglary, robbery, illegal drug possession and armed battery. A few out-of-town fugitives were located and returned to their appropriate jurisdictions. This information was included as predicate for the new ordinance being presented Monday.
From its outset, Historic City News followed and publicized the efforts of the Vagrant Watch Group members. The word spread to the merchants who put posters in their windows alerting tourist not to give money to panhandlers. Eventually, other news media began following the success of the resident’s efforts. The offenders got the word out that St Augustine wasn’t so friendly over the next two or three months. They used public Internet and free WI-FI connections on their free “Obama (sic) Phones” to warn other transients to keep moving.
If you plan to attend, the meeting starts at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, February 26, 2018 in the Alcazar Room at City Hall, 75 King Street. The agenda and backup materials are available online. The meeting will be streamed live at CityStAugTV.com and will be available later for on-demand viewing.
Comments
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1. City needs to research and discuss the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in McCullen v. Coakley, 573 U.S. ___, 134 S.Ct. 2518 (2014)(9-0 vote), where the Court unanimously struck down Massachusetts' abortion clinic distance-based criminal law restrictions on First Amendment protected activity. This is the case that I asked Mr. Kahn to discuss with me last year. (Since November, Mr. Kahn has never called me back as promised. Wonder why?). As The New York Times reported: “A painted line on the sidewalk is easy to enforce, but the prime objective of the First Amendment is not efficiency,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in a majority opinion that was joined by the court’s four-member liberal wing.... The court was unanimous about the bottom line but divided on the reasoning, with Chief Justice Roberts writing a narrow opinion. The law blocked too much speech, he said, “sweeping in innocent individuals.”
2. I've asked for all explanations or justifications of the background and need for this proposed distance regulation, which would likely be held unconstitutional under McCullen v. Coakley.
3. We have a Right to Know ALL the details before the February 26, 2018 first reading. See Florida Constitution, Article I, Section 24, adopted by vote of 3.8 million Florida voters in 1992 (83% of those voting adopted Florida's Sunshine constitutional amendment).
4. In Mr. Kahn's February 16, 2018 memo to City Attorney Isabelle Christine Lopez, he states "I have also begun assimilating evidence that I will present at that meeting..." Ipse dixit. Mr. Kahn can't fix it. In haec verba, Mr. Kahn admits he wrote his fungible criminal law, a cookie-cutter ordinance, without all of the evidence and that he has now "begun assimilating evidence..."
5. This is no way to write laws for our Nation's Oldest City. We're on the world stage now. We can do better. We must do better. We will do better
6. Kahn charged $25,000 retainer for deeply flawed ordinance and wants $300/hour to defend it when it is inevitably challenged in federal court. $25k retainer is a "loss leader." Conman Kahn is now positioned to make hundreds of thousands of dollars from defending it. Kahn's shoddy work typifies City's contracting practices & shows need for an Ombuds and an independent Inspector General.
7. Kahn's low-quality work product and poor work planning do NOT require the City to begin discussing a half-baked unconstitutional ordinance, pesto presto (or even hesto presto), on Monday, February 26. Table it, please.
8. Citizens and Commissioners: please ask questions and demand answers re: flawed distance-based ordinance draft, which is deeply flawed. How does the draft ordinance place any homeless person on notice of what is a crime? This is a trap for the unwary, yet another loony law that will make the City of St. Augustine look small, like it is still practicing "Jim Crow law." See Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156 (1972).
9. Commissioners MUST allow robust public comment at the February 26, 2018 public hearing, at the conclusion of Kahn's predictable "testimony" in support of 2018-6
10. Otherwise, something will be missed. If so, people will draw adverse inference about our City's staff and leaders. Our Nation's Oldest City must NOT enact yet another lawbreaking unconstitutional criminal law. So many unjust laws have been struck down (e.g., anti-artist, anti-musician ordinances, in 2009 and 2016)
11. Enough flummery. Let's not repeat history. As our namesake, Saint Augustine, said, "An unjust law is no law at all."
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I have written our Mayor and Commissioners asking for full and fair open public comment after Mr. Kahn's presentation of "evidence" and "testimony."
Dear Mayor Shaver, Vice Mayor Neville and Commissioners Freeman, Sikes-Kline and Horvath:
A. Please vote to allow public comment, testimony and answers to our questions, on proposed ordinance 2018-6 (Panhandling) at our February 26, 2018 (Monday, 5 PM) St. Augustine City Commission meeting. See F.S. 286.0114.
B. Before general public comment starts, will you kindly vote to allow rebuttal testimony and evidence and cross-examination at the conclusion of the one-sided "testimony" and "evidence," which Mr. Kahn plans to present at the first reading of his proposed panhandling ordinance? Please call me to discuss.
C. Enclosed for our records on Ordinance 2018-6 is the February 23, 2018 letter from my lawyer, Mr. Jack Spence, to Mayor Nancy Shaver, with copy to our City Attorney, asking you to do justice, stating in part: "Allowing general public testimony at the conclusion of Mr. Kahn's presentation of "evidence" and "testimony" might avoid the need for litigation filed by Mr. Slavin (and other concerned citizens) regarding alleged public access violations by the City. Please govern yourself accordingly."
D. Why this matters: Our City of St. Augustine's flawed lawmaking procedures violate free speech rights. They contributes to flawed decisions. St. Johns County Commission and St. Augustine Beach City Commission both allow public comment on all agenda items, including first reading of ordinances. NO principled or policy reason exists for the City of St. Augustine's antique custom of silencing public comment and testimony. In the past, some local news outlets reported ordinances "passed" on first readings as if they were enacted, "done deals." Silencing citizens at first readings violates F.S. 286.0114, chills our free speech rights and discourages public testimony at second readings. This unjust vestige of "Jim Crow" law undermines trust in government. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Let the people speak, please.
E. Taking public testimony after Mr. Kahn's first reading "testimony" and "evidence" will inform, improve and balance the City's deliberations.
F. Only ten (10) days before first reading, Mr. Kahn's February 16, 2018 letter to City Attorney Isabelle Lopez admits his last-minute work, and intent to "sandbag" the record with last-minute "evidence'" and "testimony." His "evidence" is not posted on the City's website.
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